My Fritz & Franz Jig

[Enormicon]

Hi,
I recently acquired my first slider, a used Felder K500S and wanted to post the video of the Fritz & Franz Jig I made for it.
Cheers!
BK

BK Makes: The Fritz & Franz Jig: Build It & Use It

P.S. Thank-you to [member=10829]Timtool[/member] for inspiring me to get a slider (System Workbench build coming soon) and to Steve Rowe for continuing to make content and the F&F inspiration.

 

[Mini Me]

I have been using a slider for about 8 years and a F&F jig for about the same time and the first thing I did was to cut a short piece of fence off the end of the full length rip fence and put that on the rip fence head. With the rip fence pulled back as you show in the beginning of your video you are always working around it and by having a short fence for day to day use as a bump stop the whole table to the right of the blade is clear of obstruction. I very rarely use the rip fence, maybe a few times a year and putting the full length fence on the machine only takes 30 seconds at the most. I have two F&F jigs, one with Incra fences and flip stops and one I use day to day which is two bits of MDF with some stick on sandpaper on the grip faces. I have found that using the the rip fence head as a bump stop means I rarely use the F&F Incra jig but that does not suit everyone of course as sliders are a machine that can do the same job multiple ways. 

 

[Enormicon]

Ah, thats interesting thanks, [member=58818]Mini Me[/member] ! Do you happen to own, and or use a parallel guide? When I messaged Tim a couple years ago about what options he'd recommend, I believe he said the longer rip capacity and a parallel guide.. just building his system workbench now and I can already see the usefulness, though the F&F does a pretty decent job of parallel lines as well (so far).

I will actually make an edit to the video and repost it when I get a replacement handle.. that Ikea one was a poor choice, the bolts are very long and thin and have started bending already.

 

[Mini Me]

When I first got my slider I realised that I really had no idea of how to properly use the machine fully and when I first saw the F&F jig the lights turned on so to speak. I like a lot of slider users first became aware of it when someone posted the original video on the Sawmill Creek forum.

I bought my saw without an outrigger and thus it came with a cross cut fence mounted on the operator end of the table. When I added the outrigger at a later date it came with another cross cut fence as well. By mounting both front and rear of the table I have a parallel guide system by using the flip stops built in to each fence. The F&F jig can be used by referencing to marks on the timber against the end of the jig which should be zero to the blade. Another way is to us the outside face of the table and a tape measure but that can be a bit clunky. I have looked at ways to digitise the cross cut fences for a long time and will eventually do that but not at Lamb's prices because by the time I import from the US and convert money to USD the price is simply off the planet. If you want some photos PM me your email address.